Word
В этой стране мало степей.
Meaning
There are few steppes in this country.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of В этой стране мало степей.
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
в
in / to (direction)
мало
little
страна
country
Questions & Answers about В этой стране мало степей.
Why does the word for "steppes" end in -ей here?
It is in the Genitive plural case. The dictionary form is степь (steppe), which is a feminine noun ending in a soft sign (-ь). To make the Genitive plural for nouns ending in -ь, you replace the soft sign with -ей, giving us степей.
Why do we need the Genitive plural for степей in the first place?
Because of the word мало (few). In Russian, adverbs of quantity like мало and много (many/a lot) require the noun that follows them to be in the Genitive case. Since we are talking about multiple steppes, we use the Genitive plural.
Why is it в этой стране instead of в эта страна?
The phrase "in this country" answers the question "where?" (location), so it requires the Prepositional case. The noun страна changes to стране, and the feminine word for "this" (эта) changes to match it, becoming этой.
How does Russian express "there are" in this sentence?
It doesn't use a specific verb for "there are". In Russian, to say "there is" or "there are" in a certain place, you often just state the location first (В этой стране), followed by what is there (мало степей). The verb "to be" is omitted in the present tense.